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El Gringo Metiche (The Meddling White Man)
Our heroes have resolved to track down Edward Miles, but first they need to track down Monsignors Méndez and Colón, who at last report are heading toward the border with British America. Lucía asks President Juarez if he will try to find them, and he agrees to do so. Meanwhile, Méndez and Colón look forward to being under the protection of British American spy coordinator Edward Miles. As usual, however, something gets in the way of their plans! All of a sudden, the dreaded Edward Miles and five of his personal soldiers appear. Miles has a knife stuck in Lucía's back, and the soldiers have rifles aimed at the remaining heroes' heads. Miles sharply says to the heroes, "Don't move a muscle!" and then promptly disappears with Lucía. Fortunately for our heroes, Las Botas Negras manages to run rapidly past two of the soldiers and take their rifles from them; one of them unfortunately has to be tickled for the rifle to be lifted from him. Meanwhile, El Tigre de Plata dodges a swift bullet, Supamaanz puts one of the riflemen to sleep with his new sleep-inducing power, and El Rifle shoots two of the riflemen in their aiming shoulders and makes them cry out in exquisite pain! El Tigre de Plata and Supamaanz (with the help of Chico the Cat, who came at the behest of El Tigre de Plata) wear down the wills of the two soldiers without rifles and intimidate them into revealing the location of Edward Miles' hideout in New Liverpool (formerly known as Los Ángeles) in British California. President Juarez teleports in soon after and learns the newly discovered information. Meanwhile, Miles and Lucía are playing a game of chess and discussing the situation with the British American spies in Tenochtitlán. As Lucía tells Miles of her fellow spies' change of heart as a result of the Fuego Azul - barring, of course, the duplicitous Carlos Hernández [[Por Lo General (In General)]] - she seems to carelessly place a rook in harm's way. As Miles replies that he's trained her all too well, he uses a bishop to confidently capture the carelessly placed (or so he thinks) rook. Lucía suggests that he may find that the student has surpassed the teacher, as she moves a pawn diagonally to capture his overconfident bishop. As they're having this subtle, drawn-out conversation, President Juarez teleports in with the heroes in order to keep Lucía from being harmed. However, instead of expressing gratitude, Lucía is annoyed at their intrusion upon the chess game and conversation, lamenting its lack of subtlety. Hearing the conversation and upset by the unexpected intrusion, Miles teleports behind Lucía and barely misses stabbing her in the small of her back. Las Botas Negras and El Tigre de Plata attempt to tackle Miles, but he manages to teleport out of the way just in time. Lucía sits back down, calmly awaiting the continuation of her chess game with Miles. Meanwhile, President Juarez teleports behind Miles and unsuccessfully attempts to wrest the knife from him, barely escaping an opportunistic stab in the process. Even El Rifle finds that Miles is able to teleport out of the way when shot at. Eventually it falls to the combined psychic powers of Chico and Lucía to distract Miles. Chico gives Miles psychic headaches, and Lucía begins accessing his darkest memories. She shames him with memories of how he paid Gran Colombian mothers, among them her own mother, to give up their babies. Seeing that Miles' concentration is weakening, El Rifle throws a knife right into Miles' shoulder. To keep Miles from waking up, Supamaanz uses his sleep power, causing Miles to fall into a state of reverie. Whilst Miles is unconscious, Lucía receives a memory from Miles' past, a memory of torturing and killing Anglican Bishop George Jones, who spied on behalf of Gran Colombia. She then wakes Miles up from his reverie so that he can be awake when she kills him; she wastes no time in sticking a knife through his throat, watching him bleed to death within seconds. El Rifle searches through Miles' pockets and finds a small throwing knife and picks it up, whilst Lucía finds two vials of belladonna and two vials of its antidote. Lucía remarks that these vials could be useful in the future torture of select victims. El Tigre de Plata laments and questions the constant killing that seems to be occurring lately. Lucía agrees that the violence, while necessary, should be kept to a bare minimum; she proposes to President Juarez that she be his personal advisor, and that the team of heroes be redirected toward achieving the Reconquista by hitting specific targets instead of engaging in an overt war. Juarez warms to the suggestion and appoints her as his chief advisor for this purpose, at which point she changes her appearance - to a black-cloaked, black-haired, faceless presence - and changes her name to El Enigma. Satisfied with the agreement, the heroes turn their attention to Méndez and Colón, whom they presume to be very near the border with British America. Juarez agrees to teleport to various spots along the border in order to find them, but first he collects key papers in Miles' possession that he finds behind a nearly pristine copy of Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost. Las Botas Negras takes the papers - which outline British America's overall plan to keep the threat of Gran Colombian Reconquista at bay whilst at the same time working to undermine and eventually conquer Gran Colombia itself - and reluctantly returns them to President Juarez at his behest. Having safely teleported the documents to the Federal Building in Tenochtitlán, President Juarez goes in search of Monsignors Méndez and Colón and eventually finds them heading rapidly toward the border with the British American state of Arizona. He teleports the team to the border itself in time to stop the renegade Monsignors. The heroes notice that the horses are blessed with the Fuego Azul, and Las Botas Negras speeds toward the horses and pets them, causing them to stop. Méndez and Colón are furious at having been stopped and gear themselves up for a fight. However, El Enigma psychically transmits an image of Satan into Méndez's head, along with the ominous, deeply spoken phrase, "The pit awaits you!" Méndez is too stunned and intimidated to fight, and El Tigre de Plata wrestles Colón to the ground before he can shoot anyone. To keep Colón from fighting back, El Rifle throws his new small knife into Colón's knee and promptly retrieves it, causing Colón to cry out in pain. Supamaanz then cries out, "¡Viva Gran Colombia!" to congratulate the team. Colón admits that he and Méndez have been feeding Miles information about Gran Colombian troop movements and aiding in the sale of Gran Colombian arms to British America. He additionally warns the heroes that Miles will come after them, at which they laugh and inform Colón that they've already dealt with him. Colón then asks for medical help so that he can recuperate, to which El Tigre de Plata replies, "You'll have plenty of time to recuperate - in prison!" President Juarez then teleports Méndez and Colón to prison and then returns the heroes back to the base at Tenochtitlán to rest before their next encounter. Now that Edward Miles is out of the way, the heroes agree that the business of intimidating traitors will be that much easier. In an interesting side conversation, Las Botas Negras asks El Enigma to show her the tricks of the spying trade, and El Enigma agrees. Las Botas Negras seems rather starry-eyed and enamoured of El Enigma...